Philippines Drops July 4 as Holiday on U.S. Friendship : Manila Drops July 4 U.S. Friendship Holiday

MANILA — President Corazon Aquino said today that July 4 will no longer be observed as a holiday called Philippine-American Friendship Day.

"(Aquino) said we are friends, the United States and the Philippines. But we don't have to have a holiday for it," Press Secretary Teodoro Benigno said. "July 4 is no longer a holiday."

The Philippines had observed the holiday since July 4, 1946, when the nation gained independence from nearly 50 years of American colonial rule. In 1964, Filipino Independence Day was changed to June 12 to mark an 1898 declaration of independence from three centuries of Spanish rule.

Since then, July 4 had been celebrated as Philippine-American Friendship Day. Nationalists and leftist student groups in the past marked the day by holding anti-American demonstrations.